Truly Actively Managed ETFs Still in Far Distance

Fund companies have been excited at the prospect of launching actively exchange-traded funds, but two recently regulatory filings from AER Advisors and XShares Advisors hint that the first active ETF would look a lot more like existing index ETFs, according to Dow Jones. ETF fund companies have tried to think of a design for actively managed ETFs for years that would be accepted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but thus far no plan has been approved, and a real solution could still be years away. Recently launched ETFs have tried to capture some of the interest of active funds without actually being actively managed. The funds are known as “semi-active” or “enhanced” index funds and follow indexes, but their benchmarks are known as proprietary. There are a number of proposals for actively managed ETFs filed with the SEC, including bond funds. The two latest filings from AER and XShares emphasize their easy-does-it approach. They vary slightly from funds already on the market and they might be to the liking of the SEC. The most important aspect when structuring an active ETF is whether or not to reveal what stocks the fund holds. Managers typically do not like to broadcast their strategies to competitors and only disclose their stocks when required to do so once. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.